But the Chargers never have stopped anyone consistently enough to dispel the perception that there's too much sand between their toes.

Four games in, there is unconfirmed hope.

San Diego ranks 12th in defensive yards-per-play, ninth in the crucial yards-per-pass-attempt, and 18th in the just as crucial first down conversion rate.

“That's a big improvement, isn't it?” said a puckish Eric Weddle, the free safety, knowing the Chargers were 32nd in a 32-team league in third-down stoppages last season, with a 49.2 rate that was the worst in the NFL since 1995, and lost defensive coordinator Greg Manusky because of it.

But there is a thunderstorm of caveats. The Chargers are 3-1, having beaten Oakland, Tennessee and Kansas City, who are all 1-3 and have the 19th-, 14th- and 28th-ranked quarterbacks in the NFL.

The loss was a 27-3 whipping by Atlanta and Matt Ryan, the top-ranked quarterback.

The next nine days will bring definition to San Diego.

Tonight they face Drew Brees, who is 18th ranked but almost got the winless Saints past Green Bay last week, and, of course, is still Drew Brees.

Brees can break Johnny Unitas' record of 47 consecutive games with a touchdown pass, a mark that has survived assaults from Fran Tarkenton, Joe Namath, Terry Bradshaw, Dan Marino and Joe Montana.

A week from Monday, the Chargers play host to Peyton Manning, who is ninth-rated at the moment but was 30-for-38 passing against the Raiders in Denver's victory last week, and hasn't thrown an interception in two weeks.

“We've just put a lot of focus on the fact that third down is the only down,” Weddle said. “Last year was frustrating, to say the least. No matter what happens on first and second down, we know the most important down is the next one, so we can get off the field.”

The Chargers are fourth overall in time of possession, hogging the ball more than 43 minutes against Tennessee. They also have five interceptions, two each by Weddle and cornerback Antoine Cason (Los Alamitos), and four fumble recoveries.

In the past four drafts, the Chargers have taken nine defensive players. Just two of those — linebacker Donald Butler and defensive end Corey Liuget — have become starters, along with fourth-round pick Vaughn Martin from 2009.

The Chargers have gone to the free-agent shop to get linebacker Jarret Johnson, strong safety Atari Bigby and linebacker Takeo Spikes who, memorably, said last season that the Chargers were too good to miss the playoffs because they had “a cesspool of talent.”

Still, they have only three new defensive starters. They have needed star quality, but only Weddle expected Weddle to provide it.

Weddle was a classic scout-stumper at Utah. He spread a wide net, scoring in four different ways his senior year, winning Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year honors twice with 18 career interceptions.

He was also 5-foot-11 and 200 and nobody's sprinter, so he fell into the second round of the 2007 draft. Last season, he picked seven passes and made the Pro Bowl. The joy of proving the world wrong has not receded.

“I dropped a lot of picks my first four years,” he said. “It's frustrating for sure, but you're in position, you're bound to catch them eventually. I caught them in college and high school. When you drop them here, you've got to buy pizza for everybody. I bought a lot, my first few years.”

New coordinator John Pagano has been here since 2002, assisting the assistants until he was given the outside linebackers in 2007. He says his coaching knack improved greatly with Merriman and Shaun Phillips in his group. He got the entire linebacking corps the next year.

Pagano's brother, Chuck, was Baltimore's defensive coordinator and became the coach of the Colts in the offseason. Last week, Chuck announced he was a leukemia victim and would be taking a few weeks off to recover. John did not address Chuck's condition this week.

According to Weddle, Pagano has done more to change attention spans than alignment.

“We're just watching tape more, meeting more, trying to learn what we're doing, trying to understand all the things the offense does,” Weddle said. “This year the players have taken the approach that we're not going to let anything slide, we're going to get on each other.”

The study halls lead to tonight and next Monday, and tests that bring equal proportions of pass and fail.

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